Following the success of last year’s programme, we are proud to launch the next CVD Academy and its new network of Ambassadors for 2025. This year, we are delighted to welcome 18 healthcare professionals – including GPs, pharmacists and nurses in primary care from across our region – who are ready to lead the way in improving cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in their communities.
CVD presents one of the leading healthcare challenges of our time. It is responsible for one in four premature deaths in the UK and accounts for the largest gap in life expectancy. Lord Darzi’s recent report also raised concerns about the current state of care for cardiovascular conditions moving in the wrong direction. We need to be supporting innovations that can cut through these challenges – and the CVD Academy does just that.
Dr Matt Kearney OBE, Senior Advisor for Cardiovascular Health at UCLPartners said:
CVD accounts for a quarter of premature deaths in England, drives a large proportion of urgent and emergency care, and explains a fifth of the life expectancy gap between most and least deprived communities. It is also very preventable. Primary care colleagues play a central role in reducing CVD – and we have launched the CVD Academy to provide tailored support, development of skills and networks to be able to deliver successful transformation projects.
Our Ambassadors this year are hoping to contribute to the overall reduction of strokes and heart attacks through tackling some of the most common risk conditions: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease and diabetes. This will build upon the positive impact of last year’s Academy on over 2700 patients.
To do this, our Ambassadors will be supported by experts to complete their own innovative projects and gain skills on how to lead change. Some projects this year include, increasing statin therapy for those who are eligible, creating personalised care plans for people with long-term conditions, lipid management for secondary prevention, and improving education of patients at time of a cardiovascular event.
Meet this year’s ambassadors here.
Aiysha Saleemi, CVD Academy Programme Lead at UCLPartners said:
UCLPartners CVD Academy is a programme that provides primary care clinicians with the support to lead transformation in their practice/PCN. The feedback from last year was overwhelmingly positive from Ambassadors, ICB colleagues and patient representatives. This year we hope to grow on those successes and challenge ourselves more by having a specific focus on reducing health inequalities and being bolder with the project aims.
The UCLPartners CVD Academy has been part funded by sponsorship from Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk & Daiichi Sankyo UK Ltd. Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk & Daiichi Sankyo UK Ltd have had no input or influence into the arrangements, creation of the content or selection of delegate or faculty members associated with this programme.